5 o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



process of vinous fermentation is continued, the alcohol is converted 

 chiefly into acetic acid (vinegar). 



Decolorization. Even a brief account of the chemistry of sugar 

 would not be complete without an allusion to the methods employed 

 to remove the coloring-matters naturally present in all sugars. 



Sulphurous acid is sometimes employed for bleaching, but the 

 carbon obtained by heating blood, bones, and other animal substances 

 in closed retorts is by far the most efficacious means of decolorizing 

 known. The pure white sugars and light-colored sirups of commerce 

 are decolorized with this animal char. We may say that this decolor- 

 ization is effected by oxidation of the coloring-matter, and yet the 

 phenomenon does not appear to be wholly one of oxidation. Like the 

 ju-ocess of fermentation, it is difficult to explain it in full. 



The solutions of sugar of a proper degree of dilution are passed, 

 often under pressure, through successive filters of animal charcoal un- 

 til their color is fully discharged. 



Since a high temperature tends both to render sugar of a deeper 

 color, and if it be sucrose to invert it, the evaporation of the sirup is 

 carried on in vacuum-pans, whereby it is effected much more rapidly 

 and without impairing the power of crystallization in the finished prod- 

 uct. 



From the multitude of facts connected with the chemistry of sugar 

 I have endeavored to select those which are most important and of 

 most interest to the general reader. Every intelligent man can not be 

 a sj>ecialist in every department of science, but he can easily acquire 

 a general idea of the progress of science. It is certainly a part of a 

 liberal education to know something of the chemistry of common 

 things. 



This country ought to make its own sugar. The sugar-fields of 

 Louisiana, with wiser management and a more scientific agriculture, 

 could be made to increase their yield tenfold. Along the more north- 

 ern parts of the Union the climate and soil are well adapted to the 

 culture of the sugar-beet. We should not be discouraged because a 

 few attempts in this direction have not proved financially successful. 

 Twenty-five years of failure in Europe have been followed by fifty 

 years of success, until at the present time two fifths of all the cane- 

 sugar produced m the world are obtained from the sugar-beet. Last 

 of all, the great Indian-corn-producing area of the country is peculiarly 

 suited to the growth of the sorghum sugar-cane, and the production 

 of crystallized sugar from this source is no longer a mere possibility. 

 It has already been realized. Land which will produce forty bushels 

 of corn per acre will yield from six hundred to a thousand pounds of 

 sugar, and nearly one hundred gallons of sirup. In another decade, 

 instead of having to import eleven twelfths of the sugar we consume, 

 as we do now, we may hope to produce it all. 



